Recently my local UU church got rid of its minister. The church has had

[raccoon]

3 ministers in about 6 years. This is in upstate SC.

If anyone knows why they let him go, please PM me.

[madaboutharry]

1. The synagogue I belong to got rid of

the 8 Rabbis and Cantors in 20 years. I would like someone to let me know why as well.

[msongs]

2. ask the board of directors. they should have to tell u. nt

[grasswire]

3. well................

...I know there was a problem with a UU employee last year ending in his forced withdrawal from ministry. But that was in another area of the country. I believe it was for multiple sexual misconduct matters.

[safeinOhio]

4. Ours left over a year ago.

So, we do our own Sunday services. I actually like it better. Ours is a small fellowship that can't even feed our poor little church mouse.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. There are two major reasons why a church might get rid of its minister

1. Misconduct, whether that means something illegal in secular terms (sexual abuse, embezzlement) or a violation of professional standards (revealing a secret told by a parishioner during a counseling session, playing favorites in the congregation, etc.)

2. The majority of the congregation dislike the clergyperson to the extent that personality conflicts are impeding the work of the community. Sometimes the clergy person is just the wrong person for that particular congregation. In a case like yours, three ministers in six years, it's likely that there is a strong subset of troublemakers in the congregation--the real-life equivalent of trolls. This happens sometimes.

Depending on how an individual church is governed, either the lay governing board of the church or the central administrative body makes the decision to terminate a clergy person's position. As with most firings, those who do the firing will not reveal the reasons publicly.

If you know someone from the governing board of your church, ask them if they will explain the situation to you privately.

I was once in a church where we fired the rector (Episco-speak for a priest who is in charge of a parish). This person had great gifts as a chaplain and counselor on an individual basis but had no skills whatsoever in managing people. We had three senior wardens (top volunteer lay officer of an Episcopal parish) resign in a year because they found this priest's management style to be crazy-making.

An Episcopal parish can't fire a rector without the approval of the bishop, and in this case, the bishop looked at the situation and approved.

We rank-and-file members found out about it through a letter that came in the mail. It stated simply that the vestry (the governing board elected at large from the parish) had decided to "seek new leadership."

[Manifestor_of_Light]

6. I've seen this at UU Fellowships.

Not at UU churches, which have full-time ministers.

I have seen several UU Fellowships where they had a part time minister and fired him. Why? Because the people who started the congregation decades ago wanted to have lay-led services ALL the time.

Lay-led services can be good, but I think a UU Minister is needed part of the time.

I got sick of the old people who controlled the fellowship having "Amateur Hour" every single Sunday.

[On the Road]

7. That's About Average for Methodists

Don't know about UU.